Hi guys, I'm having a problem that hopefully someone more familiar with Macs can help me out with. I will try my best to explain.
I have a 13" MBP (mid 2009). I got a new Samsung TV a few months ago. I also have an external monitor that I've been using since getting the MBP last summer.
Ever since getting the TV, and using it as an external display in my living room, to use the MBP with Plex etc... I have been having a bit of an issue. I do not know if the TV has anything to do with it but I've only noticed it since that time, and am trying to provide context. I have not noticed this at all during the year of using my external monitor.
Basically, sometime when I go to use my MBP WITHOUT a monitor now, my display will be too dark. I do not mean too dim with the backlight, I mean too dark, as in too black, too contrasty. Also the colours are slightly saturated. All my photos I have edited are too dark and have high black levels, and areas that I could see before are not dark or black.
When I first started noticing this, I could just plug my MBP back into either external monitor, the displays would take a second to set themselves and then I would unplug again and the Internal display would look proper again and I would go about my day.
I am at my moms this weekend, and I booted up my MBP to do some photo work, and it is doing the whole 'too dark' thing. I don't have any cables or displays to try 'resetting' it like at home, so I thought I'd look into finally figuring out this quirk.
It is not the colour profiles. I can still go and change those in the settings and they do change the colours, but still everything looks too dark. Ie. I change to the stock setting and it changes it but darkened. I change it to my SAMSUNG setting and it changes it but darkened. It is as if some other setting/file/something is causing it.
Out of curiosity, I enabled the guest account. When I log in, display is normal. My levels look right and I can go to some photos and they look the way they should, the way I edited them to look.
Go back to my profile and its too dark again. Also you can notice when you log in, my background shows up and then a second later you can see the shift to darker/saturated.
I tried resetting PRAM. I booted into SAFE MODE, and it was still too dark. I'm just wondering if someone familiar with this stuff knows of something I can do to get it to stop this behaviour. Sometimes it looks fine and acts as it has all year. I would use it with external monitor at home every day and 4 days a week I'd unplug it and take it to school. Never had this issue until this summer.
I'm going to the cottage for two days, so I wont be responding often saturday and sunday (unless I can get internet on my iPhone).
I appreciate any help. If I were at home I would just do the quick plug in/unplug external fix that has been working, but I figure I shouldnt be doing that anyways, so I'd like to get to the bottom of this. It seems to be something to do with my own profile, as the guest profile does not do this. I would like to avoid a fresh SL install possible, or wiping all my system preference settings or something of that nature. I do have my machine backed up in time machine if it comes to that though.
Sorry for long winded post, I wanted to try and be clear about the behaviour. Also, I have searched on here and on the net but most results relate to backlighting, or various other display anomolies that don't relate to my issue.
I have a 13" MBP (mid 2009). I got a new Samsung TV a few months ago. I also have an external monitor that I've been using since getting the MBP last summer.
Ever since getting the TV, and using it as an external display in my living room, to use the MBP with Plex etc... I have been having a bit of an issue. I do not know if the TV has anything to do with it but I've only noticed it since that time, and am trying to provide context. I have not noticed this at all during the year of using my external monitor.
Basically, sometime when I go to use my MBP WITHOUT a monitor now, my display will be too dark. I do not mean too dim with the backlight, I mean too dark, as in too black, too contrasty. Also the colours are slightly saturated. All my photos I have edited are too dark and have high black levels, and areas that I could see before are not dark or black.
When I first started noticing this, I could just plug my MBP back into either external monitor, the displays would take a second to set themselves and then I would unplug again and the Internal display would look proper again and I would go about my day.
I am at my moms this weekend, and I booted up my MBP to do some photo work, and it is doing the whole 'too dark' thing. I don't have any cables or displays to try 'resetting' it like at home, so I thought I'd look into finally figuring out this quirk.
It is not the colour profiles. I can still go and change those in the settings and they do change the colours, but still everything looks too dark. Ie. I change to the stock setting and it changes it but darkened. I change it to my SAMSUNG setting and it changes it but darkened. It is as if some other setting/file/something is causing it.
Out of curiosity, I enabled the guest account. When I log in, display is normal. My levels look right and I can go to some photos and they look the way they should, the way I edited them to look.
Go back to my profile and its too dark again. Also you can notice when you log in, my background shows up and then a second later you can see the shift to darker/saturated.
I tried resetting PRAM. I booted into SAFE MODE, and it was still too dark. I'm just wondering if someone familiar with this stuff knows of something I can do to get it to stop this behaviour. Sometimes it looks fine and acts as it has all year. I would use it with external monitor at home every day and 4 days a week I'd unplug it and take it to school. Never had this issue until this summer.
I'm going to the cottage for two days, so I wont be responding often saturday and sunday (unless I can get internet on my iPhone).
I appreciate any help. If I were at home I would just do the quick plug in/unplug external fix that has been working, but I figure I shouldnt be doing that anyways, so I'd like to get to the bottom of this. It seems to be something to do with my own profile, as the guest profile does not do this. I would like to avoid a fresh SL install possible, or wiping all my system preference settings or something of that nature. I do have my machine backed up in time machine if it comes to that though.
Sorry for long winded post, I wanted to try and be clear about the behaviour. Also, I have searched on here and on the net but most results relate to backlighting, or various other display anomolies that don't relate to my issue.
I just kept coming back to the thread when the problem would bother me again or I was feeling investigative. With Mountain Lion coming up I was hoping to find a solution in case I needed a clean install.